I went to Best Buy to play with one and I noticed that the book "Impact" by Douglass Preston was on the display iPad and as far as I know the ebook is not supposed to be released until May 5th.
Is is on the iBook store? or however apple has the ebook store setup..

Impact on Amazon.com. - "Available for Pre-order. This item will be released on May 4, 2010."

I can’t find Impact on www.apple.com. Do you need an ipad to see if there are any ebooks that you would want? Great way to draw more people into buying an ipad.

I'll just take tlrowley for his word (and picture).

Quote:

Originally Posted by tlrowley

Yes, it's available - it also seems to be available on B&N. Looks like only Kindle/Amazon is out in the cold. So much for Macmillan's vaunted "day-and-date if we get the Agency model" promise .

So. Are you contending that Amazon hasn’t been informed that others are selling Impact and that their "This item will be released on May 4, 2010" is just due to their incompetence? Could be. Lord knows that they do tic some people off!

EDIT: I'll just take tlrowley for his word (and picture).
Change to "HER" word.

This stuff tells you nothing about why the book is delayed on Amazon. Sure, it's possible that Macmillan is withholding it. But I doubt they would do that on purpose. For one thing, it would be costly administrative overhead on their part. Amazon frequently screws up ebook listings, and backlogs of getting stuff up are well known. (I've been waiting on several of my books for some time now. The uploading system from publishers is convoluted and not very amenable to fixing problems.)

God knows I have my differences with publishers, and I'm no fan of the agency model. But I do grow weary of the assumption that every time something bad happens, it's the evil publisher's fault. That's supposed to be the author's line.

This stuff tells you nothing about why the book is delayed on Amazon. Sure, it's possible that Macmillan is withholding it. But I doubt they would do that on purpose. For one thing, it would be costly administrative overhead on their part. Amazon frequently screws up ebook listings, and backlogs of getting stuff up are well known. (I've been waiting on several of my books for some time now. The uploading system from publishers is convoluted and not very amenable to fixing problems.)

God knows I have my differences with publishers, and I'm no fan of the agency model. But I do grow weary of the assumption that every time something bad happens, it's the evil publisher's fault. That's supposed to be the author's line.

I personally think Amazon has something up their sleeve, but ...that's just me, and maybe I'm being a conspiracy-theory wingnut about it.

Donna Andrews (author of the Meg Langslow series) has told me (via Hank Phillippi Ryan) that Amazon's backlog is the reason her backlist isn't available for Kindle. So I tend to agree with your contention that Amazon has a backlog of stuff waiting to be put up. However, it's been a long time (at least a year, because I started looking for her titles when I first got my EZ Reader last February) now, and still nothing. How big of a backlog can they have and still keep any credibility?

Why can't at least ONE retailer get it right consistently? If they're all going to be forced into the same pricing, you'd think they'd at least try to get the books out there at the same time.

Admittedly, I'm no fan of the publishers in this war. And I wouldn't put it past any of them to withhold or delay titles from a specific retailer that they see as "the enemy". But at this point, no one is innocent, and everyone is guilty. It's only a matter of degree. I want the publishers to shut up and put up; get those backlists out there. I want the publishers, Amazon and the other retailers to get ebooks on the sites on the same day as the hardback releases (midnight, to be exact), and I want everything to be available at at least ONE retailer...not the spotty "this is here but that is here" system we have now.

However, it's been a long time (at least a year, because I started looking for her titles when I first got my EZ Reader last February) now, and still nothing. How big of a backlog can they have and still keep any credibility?

A year is how long I've been waiting for several of my titles to show on Amazon. They got a bunch of them up after--oh, eight or nine months. But several others are still sitting somewhere in limbo. And this isn't from me as an independent author. These are books from a publisher. I'm told my situation is far from unique.

A year is how long I've been waiting for several of my titles to show on Amazon. They got a bunch of them up after--oh, eight or nine months. But several others are still sitting somewhere in limbo. And this isn't from me as an independent author. These are books from a publisher. I'm told my situation is far from unique.

Oh, I wasn't doubting you at all, Jeff. It is just amazing to me that they can get by with that.